WBIW.com News - local

Theives Bilked Millions From Bloomington Pub

(BLOOMINGTON) - Nick’s English Hut, a Bloomington pub, is under investigation by the FBI after a massive cyberfraud operation run by international thieves bilked owners for $1.2 million.

Investigators said about six weeks ago, a prepaid debit card company alerted the owners of Nick's English Hut of six suspicious transactions that totaled $6,000.

According to agents somebody got into the pub's merchant processor and the conduit to their account, which then took them to the pub's checking account.

The company that processes all of Nick's credit card transactions was hacked, investigators said. According to the 33 international banks that are involved and according to Nick's owners, the company never flagged what should have been suspicious withdrawals from their business account.

Nick's bank and credit card processors were able to block $500,000 worth of fraudulent transactions, but the pub was charged $700,000 in fees and is now asking customers to pay in cash.

Nick's owners said they will bounce back from the crime but plan to fight the hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges that still remain.

Investigators said customer credit card information wasn't stolen, and no arrests have been made.

1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com